One administrator. The whole program.
What a Third Party Administrator is for
A TPA — formally a Consortium/Third Party Administrator under DOT rules — runs your drug and alcohol program on your behalf. Not just the testing. The pool, the selections, the collection network, the laboratory relationships, the MRO, the Clearinghouse reporting, the SAP coordination, the recordkeeping and the audit trail.
You remain the employer and the responsibility remains yours. What changes is that a team who do this every day are handling the mechanics, and that the evidence exists when someone asks for it.
You cannot outsource liability. If your TPA misses a random selection deadline, the finding lands on you. That is why the question worth asking is not "what does it cost" but "who answers the phone when something goes wrong at 2am".
The one-stop-shop, meant literally
Most carriers arrive at IPS running three or four vendors: one for testing, one for the Clearinghouse, an MRO service somewhere, a training provider they used once. Each blames the others when something falls through the gap — and things fall through the gap, because nobody owns the whole picture.
Under one administrator, the pre-employment test, the Clearinghouse query, the previous-employer request and the driver qualification record are one workflow. A verified positive automatically triggers the SAP referral, the Clearinghouse report and the follow-up schedule. Nothing waits on someone remembering to tell someone else.
What runs under your account
- DOT drug testing under Part 40 for FMCSA, FAA, FTA, PHMSA and USCG.
- Non-DOT testing on your own panels and policy, kept properly separate.
- Random pool management — consortium or dedicated, with rate monitoring.
- In-house MRO review by a DOT-certified physician on staff.
- Breath alcohol testing through a certified BAT network.
- Clearinghouse registration, C/TPA designation, queries and violation reporting.
- SAP coordination, return-to-duty testing and follow-up schedule management.
- Policy writing, supervisor training and audit support.
- Online portal access to every record, result and invoice.
Why carriers switch to us
Almost always the same story: the previous TPA was cheap, then unreachable. A random deadline slipped. An audit arrived and nobody came. IPS grows on referrals from carriers we already serve — roughly 25 to 30 new clients a year come to us that way — because service, not price, is what people actually talk about.
Switching is free and takes about a day
We request your records from the outgoing administrator, reconcile your driver roster, load your pool, verify your Clearinghouse registration and designation, and issue a compliance certificate. No setup fee, no long-term contract, no gap in coverage. Most programs are live within 24 hours. See Join IPS for exactly what the switch looks like.
Consolidate under one TPA
Everything, under one account
All testing types
Pool management
In-house MRO
Clearinghouse & queries
SAP & return-to-duty
Audit representation
Third Party Administration — your questions
A C/TPA manages your drug and alcohol testing program on your behalf: random pool management and selections, collection site coordination, laboratory and MRO services, Clearinghouse reporting, SAP coordination, recordkeeping and audit support. The regulatory responsibility remains with you as the employer.
Not for every employer — but owner-operators subject to FMCSA rules must designate a C/TPA to report to the Clearinghouse on their behalf, and any employer too small to form a valid random pool needs a consortium. For everyone else it is a practical decision about who has the time and expertise.
It depends on driver count, testing volume and which services you need. IPS charges no setup fee and requires no long-term contract. Tell us your fleet size and we will send a quote the same business day.
Straightforward. We request your records from the outgoing administrator, reconcile your roster, load your pool and verify your Clearinghouse status. Most programs are live within 24 hours with no gap in coverage and no migration fee.
Yes. You get a specific person who knows your account, plus a 24/7 emergency line for post-accident testing that a real person answers. This is the difference clients cite most often when they refer other carriers to us.
Yes. If you run a mixed operation — trucking plus pipeline, transit plus maintenance — we administer all of it under one account rather than making you manage separate vendors per agency.
Still have a question? Call 248-526-9000 or send us a message.
Services that pair with this one
Random Consortium
FMCSA Clearinghouse
Medical Review Officer
